Scotland’s and Wales’s first ministers have insisted that their own parliaments hold authority over further local devolution, following talks with prime minister Andy Burnham in Glasgow. John Swinney and Rhun ap Iorwerth discussed local powers covering employment and reindustrialisation with Burnham, whose government wants to extend the approach to regional devolution being pursued in England.
Downing Street described the meeting as constructive. Burnham said he wanted progress across all four UK nations, pointing to measures in Wednesday’s budget that would expand English mayors’ powers over tax revenues. Northern Ireland’s first minister, Michelle O’Neill, had been expected to participate but stayed away following a dispute between Sinn Féin and the DUP. Burnham expressed disappointment at her absence.
Before the summit, defence secretary Wes Streeting drew criticism by suggesting that the Scottish government had retained powers received from Westminster instead of passing them down to local authorities. Speaking to BBC Scotland, he questioned whether the transfer of responsibilities and resources to Holyrood should be followed by further transfers to councils across Scotland. Such interventions frequently irritate the SNP-led government, with one Scottish official describing them as “lecturing us on devolution”.
After the discussions, ap Iorwerth said he had pressed Burnham to grant additional powers to the Welsh government. He also stressed that decisions about further devolution within Wales belonged exclusively to the Senedd. Swinney likewise indicated that he would cooperate on securing more powers for Scotland’s government, while saying Burnham had assured him that the Scottish parliament would not be bypassed.
The conciliatory comments did not resolve wider disagreements over funding and constitutional powers. Shortly before the meeting, ap Iorwerth had accused Burnham of being “not serious about Wales” over his first budget. The Welsh government said the settlement represented a funding reduction in real terms. Plaid Cymru has already formally requested that Wales receive the same devolved powers as Scotland.
Plaid’s victory in May’s Senedd elections brought nationalists into government in all three of the UK’s Celtic nations for the first time. Separately, Lee Waters, a former minister in the Labour-led Welsh government who served in the Senedd until May’s elections, warned against applying an English mayoral model to Wales.
Waters told the Guardian that English regions typically contained between 1.5 million and 3 million people, while Welsh regions covered less densely populated areas. He argued that Wales’s population being comparable to Greater Manchester, where Burnham previously served as mayor, did not make their political geography equivalent. Many responsibilities Burnham envisaged for metro mayors, Waters said, were already exercised by the Welsh government.
